On January 8, 2026, the respected Israeli journalist Danny Zaken published an article on the JNS wire about the possibility of Saudi Arabia's returning to play a role in the US efforts to regulate the situation in Gaza after having achieved a ceasefire there. According to the article, Saudi Arabia offered to assist in implementing the necessary reforms in the structure and activities of the Palestinian Authority (PA) so that it could participate in the emerging arrangement in Gaza.
Among the reforms in question was the need to change the PA curriculum.
This is a fundamental matter. Since 2000, I have been researching the attitude in the Palestinian Authority's textbooks toward Israel, Jews, and peace, and I have found out that their principles were not different from those of Hamas. They are also the books that were actually taught in Gaza all those years under Hamas rule. The treatment of the conflict in these textbooks boils down to three basic principles:
1. Opposition to the existence of the State of Israel in any territory in the country and to the very presence of its seven million Jewish citizens,
2. Severe demonization of it and the Jews - also on religious grounds, and
3. A call for a violent struggle for comprehensive liberation, within the framework of which the need for their annihilation is sometimes implied.
This is not just about presenting the State of Palestine as the sovereign state in the entire land instead of Israel - both in the text and on the maps - and replacing the name Israel with the term "Zionist occupation", but also about erasing Tel Aviv and the other cities built by Jews in the land from the map, and by denying their history in the country and the existence of their holy places there - most notably the Western Wall, the last remnant of their destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. The "occupation", according to the Palestinian Authority textbooks, does not date back to 1967, but to 1948.
Demonization is done by presenting the Jews as infidels, as the Devil's aides, and as enemies of God's prophets (and by implication, enemies of God himself - bearing in mind the dangerous implications of such expressions in the eyes of students from traditional societies), who in the past betrayed Muhammad and who today constitute an existential threat to the Palestinian Arabs. The Jews are a threat, as claimed in the books, because of their racism stemming from the "chosen people" idea and because, as claimed, they are motivated by the Jewish religious thought to perpetrate massacres with the intention of exterminating the Palestinian Arabs.
The Oslo Accords are detailed in one or two history books, but they are not used to spreading a call for peace with Israel. On the contrary, the education is for jihad and martyrdom (shahada) to liberate the country from the "occupying Zionists," with cities within Israel in its pre-1967 borders, such as Haifa, Jaffa, and Acre, being explicitly mentioned in this context. Terrorism, like the attack on the civilian bus on the coastal road in 1978, is an integral part of the struggle for liberation, as is the return of refugees.
A song that talks about the extermination of the "defeated remnants of the foreigners" after the liberation was dropped from the textbooks after a few years of being taught in them. But it was given a melody and used to be sung in dozens of classrooms in the PA territories. It is not clear whether it stopped being sung after it had been taken out of the books.
It should be emphasized that the use of PA textbooks is mandatory in all schools, including private and UNRWA schools, in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza regions and in many schools in eastern Jerusalem. All the points mentioned here are taught in the current school year and have not been changed since 2020 (textbooks) and 2018 (teachers' guides), although new printings have also been published in later years. That comes in stark contrast to the repeated claims by Western officials and journalists that say otherwise.
The basic premise of my research is that textbooks most clearly reflect the way in which a society, any society, seeks to instill its principles in the minds of the younger generation. The content of the PA's textbooks clearly contradicts its commitments under the Oslo Accords, and the question is: What exactly reflects its true intentions?
I tend to believe the PA's textbooks more than its signatures on the agreement. Even if I'm wrong, as long as the PA's textbooks look like this, it should not be allowed to set foot in Gaza, because that would preserve the spirit of Hamas's extremist education there. I wholeheartedly expect a fundamental change in the PA's textbooks, at least in the spirit of the Oslo Accords, and I would be happy if Saudi Arabia would contribute to this:
1. The curriculum, as expressed in textbooks and teacher guides, should emphasize that peace and coexistence with Israel are Palestinian Arab strategic goals, in accordance with the spirit of Arafat's letter to Rabin on the eve of the signing of the Oslo Accords (the letter appears in one of the books, but without any echo in the others, and therefore should be placed and used as a living example in other books as well).
2. The struggle for liberation from Israeli "occupation" may remain but must be purely political, and therefore any suggestion of the need for violent activity - and certainly glorification of terrorist acts against civilians - must be omitted from the books, also in the spirit of that letter.
3. Within this framework, traditional ideals that bear a belligerent character, such as jihad and martyrdom (shahada), must be detached from the current conflict and left as part of the historical past.
4. Coexistence with Israel requires demonstrating its official recognition by the PA - in the spirit of that letter - by presenting it under its official name within its internationally recognized borders on every political map that appears in books, and limiting the liberation struggle to the 1967 lines. The non-recognition of the Jewish presence in the land today must cease by putting Tel Aviv and other major cities founded by Jews on the map.
5. The current denial of both Jewish history and the existence of Jewish holy places in the country must be stopped and the falsification of historical items must be avoided, such as, for example, the erasure of the Hebrew inscription from a Mandatory coin featured in one of the books.
6. Any material that expresses religious bigotry against Jews must be removed from the books, and certainly any material that speaks of their extermination.
These are the general outlines of the necessary change.